• Question: How comes humans laugh to certain things and cry for others? In other words, why is our reaction the way it is to different situations? Thanks alot :)

    Asked by syria12345 to Laura, Lily, Mark, Paul, Sarah on 25 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Lily Asquith

      Lily Asquith answered on 21 Jun 2010:

      Emotions help us to bond with one another and bond as communities. Being able to do this makes it much more likely that we will take care of one another and get the chance to reproduce.

    • Photo: Mark Roberts

      Mark Roberts answered on 21 Jun 2010:

      Oooh that’s probably more culture than science per say – a lot of what we find amusing will depend on the culture we are brought up on

      So a lot of nurture!

      That said it is a question that people are still researching (anthropologists mainly) so there may be a better answer than this to be found

    • Photo: Laura Maliszewski

      Laura Maliszewski answered on 22 Jun 2010:

      There are a lot of reasons. We interact with our environments all the time and learn appropriate responses to stimulae from the people around us.

    • Photo: Sarah Bardsley

      Sarah Bardsley answered on 24 Jun 2010:

      Hmmm – crying when we’re sad releases emotions like grief, sadness or pain. Releasing them is the first step to feeling better so it needs to be done in order to move on. Laughing relaxes us and helps bonding between people. Have you ever got the giggles with a mate in a lesson or assembly? Doing that helps you connect with the person who’s also in on the joke. Although don’t use that excuse when next caught doing it!

    • Photo: Paul Roche

      Paul Roche answered on 25 Jun 2010:

      These must be responses to very common emotions that all humans experince (unless they are psychologically damaged), presumably developed over human evolution as ways of helping us deal with certain situations, e.g. a healthy fear of heights, or spiders or snakes etc. – being scared of things that can harm us is a useful way to avoid harm. Being appy or sad, laughing, crying etc. is presumably a way that humans can share emotions, and that must have helped groups to form and work together, and for societies to form.

      But I’m not a psychologist, so this is just my view…

Comments